HPV infection and immunochemical detection of cell-cycle markers in verrucous carcinoma of the penis

Penile verrucous carcinoma is a rare disease and little is known of its aetiology or pathogenesis. In this study we examined cell-cycle proteins expression and correlation with human papillomavirus infection in a series of 15 pure penile verrucous carcinomas from a single centre. Of 148 penile tumours, 15 (10%) were diagnosed as pure verrucous carcinomas. The expression of the cell-cycle-associated proteins p53, p21, RB, p16INK4A and Ki67 were examined by immunohistochemistry. Human papillomavirus infection was determined by polymerase chain reaction to identify a wide range of virus types. The expression of p16INK4A and Ki67 was significantly lower in verrucous carcinoma than in usual type squamous cell carcinoma, whereas the expression of p53, p21 and RB was not significantly different. p53 showed basal expression in contrast to usual type squamous cell carcinoma. Human papillomavirus infection was present in only 3 out of 13 verrucous carcinomas. Unique low-risk, high-risk and mixed viral infections were observed in each of the three cases. In conclusion, lower levels of p16INK4A and Ki67 expressions differentiate penile verrucous carcinoma from usual type squamous cell carcinoma. The low Ki67 index reflects the slow-growing nature of verrucous tumours. The low level of p16INK4A expression and human papillomavirus detection suggests that penile verrucous carcinoma pathogenesis is unrelated to human papillomavirus infection and the oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes classically altered by virus infection.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Extracción de proteínas secretadas por el fitopatógeno Macrophomina phaseolina: Selección de un método eficiente que incluye estímulo con tejido de su hospedero

El hongo necrotrófico, mundialmente distribuido, Macrophomina phaseolina es el agente causal de enfermedades de cultivos de importancia económica como la podredumbre carbonosa de la soja. Este hongo secreta una amplia variedad de proteínas y metabolitos que le permiten invadir la planta e iniciar el proceso de infección. La contribución de las proteínas con actividad hidrolítica secretadas por este hongo en el proceso de infección ha sido ampliamente estudiada, las proteínas sin actividad enzimática también podrían poseer un papel importante en este proceso. El análisis de proteínas totales permitiría ampliar el conocimiento sobre este patógeno, y establecer estrategias más eficientes para su control. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue evaluar tres métodos de extracción de proteínas secretadas por M. phaseolina. El hongo fue crecido en medio líquido PDB y Czapek-Dox (CZP) con y sin suplemento de hojas de soja. Las proteínas fueron extraídas del filtrado liofilizado del medio PDB utilizando tres métodos de extracción, y analizadas mediante SDS-PAGE. Se seleccionó el método de precipitación de proteínas con ácido tricloroacético en acetona ya que mostró una mejor resolución del perfil proteico. El filtrado de M. phaseolina crecido en PDB suplementado con hojas de soja (MpPDBs) presentó un mayor rendimiento de extracción de proteínas secretadas entre todas las condiciones evaluadas. Los perfiles proteicos del medio PDB con y sin suplemento, presentaron siete bandas diferenciales, una de ellas específica, detectada en MpPDBs. Estos resultados constituyen una base para estudios sobre el papel de proteínas secretadas por el hongo en el proceso de infección

LEPRA LEPROMATOSA PENEAL EN PACIENTE CON ENFERMEDAD DE CHAGAS. REPORTE DE UN CASO

Se presenta el caso de un paciente masculino de 52 años con fimosis secundaria a una masa pseudotumoral prepucial. El paciente presentaba una historia de enfermedad de Hansen con afectación de piel, laringe y bronquios. Previa a la circuncisión, el examen físico revelaba, además de las alteraciones lepromatosas, un mega esófago secundario a estenosis en la porción distal. El análisis laboratorial mediante la técnica de ELISA dio positivo para Trypanosoma cruzi, patógeno responsable de la enfermedad de Chagas. Sólo pudimos encontrar un caso previo reportado de lepra lepromatosa con afectación prepucial. La coexistencia de lepra y miocardiopatía chagásica es inusual pero bien conocida por casos reportados en Brasil e India. Sin embargo, de acuerdo a nuestros conocimientos, éste es el primer caso reportado de una sociación entre lepra lepromatosa y mega esófago chagásico en un paciente con fimosis

Peri-ampullary mixed acinar-endocrine carcinoma

Mixed acinar-endocrine carcinomas (MAEC) are rare tumors of the pancreas. We present the case of a patient with periampullary tumor that presented with painless jaundice and after investigation was found to have MAEC. He underwent pancreaticoduo-dunectomy with tumor free margins and negative lymph nodes. The patient presented with local recurrence and liver metastasis after 1 year and is on chemotherapy with stable lesions 30 months after the diagnosis

Alternative HER/PTEN/Akt Pathway Activation in HPV Positive and Negative Penile Carcinomas

Copyright: 2011 Stankiewicz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: The pathogenesis of penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is not well understood, though risk factors include human papillomavirus (HPV). Disruption of HER/PTEN/Akt pathway is present in many cancers; however there is little information on its function in PSCC. We investigated HER family receptors and phosphatase and tension homolog (PTEN) in HPV-positive and negative PSCC and its impact on Akt activation using immunohistochemistry and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). Methodology/Principal Findings: 148 PSCCs were microarrayed and immunostained for phosphorylated EGFR (pEGFR), HER2, HER3, HER4, phosphorylated Akt (pAkt), Akt1 and PTEN proteins. EGFR and PTEN gene status were also evaluated using FISH. HPV presence was assessed by PCR. pEGFR expression was detected significantly less frequently in HPV-positive than HPV-negative tumours (p = 0.0143). Conversely, HER3 expression was significantly more common in HPV-positive cases (p = 0.0128). HER4, pAkt, Akt and PTEN protein expression were not related to HPV. HER3 (p = 0.0054) and HER4 (p = 0.0002) receptors significantly correlated with cytoplasmic Akt1 immunostaining. All three proteins positively correlated with tumour grade (HER3, p = 0.0029; HER4, p = 0.0118; Akt1, p = 0.0001). pEGFR expression correlated with pAkt but not with tumour grade or stage. There was no EGFR gene amplification. HER2 was not detected. PTEN protein expression was reduced or absent in 62% of tumours but PTEN gene copy loss was present only in 4% of PSCCs. Conclusions/Significance: EGFR, HER3 and HER4 but not HER2 are associated with penile carcinogenesis. HPV-negative tumours tend to express significantly more pEGFR than HPV-positive cancers and this expression correlates with pAkt protein, indicating EGFR as an upstream regulator of Akt signalling in PSCC. Conversely, HER3 expression is significantly more common in HPV-positive cases and positively correlates with cytoplasmic Akt1 expression. HER4 and PTEN protein expression are not related to HPV infection. Our results suggest that PSCC patients could benefit from therapies developed to target HER receptors.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Corporate governance and its impact on firm value and financial ratios: An evidence from publicly-listed companies in the Philippines

There were numerous accounts of corporate fraud throughout the decade. The control and monitoring of management power were put into concepts however, this was not given emphasis and importance. This control of management power is called Corporate Governance. While it is true that profitability is the primary goal of any company, good governance is also essential for its survival. This paper intended to determine the impact of corporate governance practices of selected Philippine publicly-listed firms in the industrial, mining and oil, property and services to overall firm performance through financial ratios and firm value from 2008 to 2011. This paper also intended to evaluate the effectiveness governance regulations by determining if there were an improvement of ratings and an increase in corporate governance scores provided by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and which of its sub-principles were the mostly complied, least complied, and caused changes in such scores. The results, through descriptive statistics, showed that over the four-year period, there was continued improvement of the average corporate governance scores of the 30 companies from 2008 to 2010 but there had been a slight decline for 2011. The results also showed that Disclosure and Transparency was mostly complied, while Role of Stakeholders was the least one. The panel data regression barely showed a significant effect of corporate governance scores to firm value and financial ratios. The only exceptions which showed significant effect were Role Stakeholders to Return on Equity and Firm Size to Firm Value

Extraction of proteins secreted by the phytopathogen Macrophomina phaseolina: Selection of an efficient method that includes stimulation with its host tissue

The globally distributed necrotrophic fungus Macrophomina phaseolina is the causal agent of economically important crop diseases such as soybean charcoal rot. This fungus secretes a wide variety of proteins and metabolites that allow it to invade the plant and initiate the infection process. The role of fungi secreted proteins with hydrolytic activity in the infection process has been extensively studied; proteins without enzymatic activity could also play an important role in this process. The analysis of total proteins would allow to broaden the knowledge about this pathogen and establish more efficient strategies for its control. The objective of the present work was to evaluate three methods for the extraction of proteins secreted by M. phaseolina. The fungus was grown in potato dextrose broth (PDB) and Czapek-Dox (CZP) with and without soybean leaf supplementation. Proteins were extracted from the lyophilized filtrate of PDB medium using three extraction methods and analyzed by SDS-PAGE. The protein precipitation with trichloroacetic acid in acetone was selected because it showed a better resolution of the protein profile. The filtrate of M. phaseolina grown in PDB supplemented with soybean (MpPDBs) presented the highest yield of protein extraction of secreted proteins among all conditions evaluated. The protein profiles of PDB medium with and without supplementation showed seven differential bands, one of the specific, detected in MpPDBs. These results constitute a basis for studies on the implication of proteins secreted by the fungus in the infection process.</jats:p